BELGIAN METHODS ADOPTED IN NORFOLK. 



231 



for foreign oil-cake, ought to be as much the care of the farmer 

 as the providing of the nation with corn. Seeing, then, that 

 the immense sums annually sent out of the country for the 

 purchase of hemp and cake, tend to enrich the foreign, at the 

 expense of the British farmer, and to employ the foreign, 

 instead of the English labourer ; and seeing that flax does not 

 lessen but increase the produce of corn, — no argument of weight 

 can be brought against its cultivation. But I ought to ob- 

 serve that the soil and climate of Great Britain are more con- 

 genial to the growth of fine than of coarse flax ; for, a crop of 

 the latter can scarcely be produced without a large proportion 

 of the former, which, when selected, is worth more per stone, 

 and is prepared for the finest purposes. 



The Belgians are particularly careful and expert in sorting 

 .flax. Their plan is being adopted in Norfolk ; and some of the 

 flax thus secured has been spun into yarn by women and children, 

 and manufactured into linen, stockings, and gloves at Norwich, 

 North Walsham, Lowestoff*, and other places. But it appears, 

 from communications with which I have lately been favoured, 

 that discoveries have been made, by which Flax grown in 

 Somersetshire, of a dark, foxy, and bad colour, that cost 35/. 

 per ton delivered at Leeds, was so improved as to be rendered 

 in colour and fineness nearly equal to the celebrated Courtrai 

 flax." My correspondent kindly forwarded a specimen, and 

 informed me, at the same time, that, From various experi- 

 ments made in English, Irish, French, and the Baltic flax, he 

 would soon convince me that if we could only grow flax in this 

 country, it would be prepared in a manner that will make yarn 

 equal to that obtained from foreign flax." In due time, the 

 process referred to will, I doubt not, be made public. I merely 

 allude to it, on the present occasion, as corroborative of ar- 

 guments and experience in favour of the double crop. All my 

 calculations will be found, in the main, correct : and it is with 

 satisfaction that I can refer the reader to my pamphlets and 

 letters published during the past four years. I trust I have 

 now shown that flax, under experienced management, must be 

 highly remunerative — that the grower, in sacrificing the seed, 

 would lose the chief benefit of the crop — and that the contrary 

 opinions upon this subject are futile. I trust, also, I have 



